Rat study suggests Allergan's failed antidepressant rapastinel may work as opioid addiction treatment
Last month, when Allergan’s $AGN once-touted pipeline star rapastinel crashed and burned a slate of pivotal depression studies, it looked like the experimental modulator of the NMDA receptor would be shrouded in a cloak of invisibility — but researchers may have found a way to rescue the experimental drug by repurposing it as a treatment for opioid dependence.
In the United States, the crisis of opioid abuse, misuse and overdose — from prescription painkillers, heroin, and synthetic opioids such as fentanyl — has reached epidemic proportions, causing 130 deaths every day, according to NIH estimates. Once in withdrawal, addicts are left to cope with a myriad of symptoms including anxiety, agitation, sleep problems, muscle aches, runny nose, sweating, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea and opioid cravings.
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